LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) -
Bobby Charlton, breaking almost half-a-century of silence about the
1958 Munich air crash, says the disaster still haunts him every day
of his life.
Charlton, now 69, was 20 at the time of the disaster on Feb. 6 1958
that cost the lives of 23 people including eight of his Manchester
United team mates.
He told The Times in an interview published on Monday that memories
of the crash, which he survived 'with just a bang on the head'
always haunt him.
'You know, you feel a bit guilty. I do feel guilty even now. I
think about it every day of my life,' said the attack-minded
midfielder, who played 106 times for England and is still the
country's all-time record international scorer with 49 goals.
Charlton, who says that he will never be able to speak about some
of the scenes of death and devastation that he witnessed, describes
in detail the moments leading up to the disaster.
United's twin-engined Elizabethan plane was attempting to take off
from a snowy and slushy Munich airport for the third time after two
aborted attempts following a re-fuelling stop on their way back
from a European Cup tie in Belgrade.
'It was taking so long to get off the ground and I suddenly
realised that everyone felt the same. Then it went really quiet and
as I looked out the window we hit a fence.
'We knocked it flat and then everyone knew this was really
serious.'
Charlton, knocked unconscious as the plane began to break apart,
was thrown some distance from the wreckage and passed out for 10 to
15 minutes before being rescued by his team mate Harry Gregg and
taken to hospital.
He says the thought he survived when so many of his friends died
still haunts him.
'I asked first about the people who were really quite personal to
me - Tommy Taylor, David Pegg, Eddie Colman. They were close,
really close.
'I spent so much time with them. Tommy and David and me were in
digs in the same area and we all had mining backgrounds.
'We were all such friends, so when the German lad (in hospital)
read out they were all dead I couldn't understand how I could have
been 50 yards away from the aeroplane, still strapped in my seat,
without suffering anything but a bang on my head which needed a few
stitches.
'How could that be? How could I feel myself all over and find out
that I was all right, completely whole and my pals were dead. I
think about this fact every day of my life.
'I didn't think I was lucky or anything like that. What it was, was
just one basic question: how can it be that I'm all right and all
these other lads have gone?
'And, you know, you feel a bit guilty. I do feel guilty even
now.'
Charlton was fit enough to play again three weeks after the crash,
returning for an FA Cup sixth round match against West Bromwich
Albion. United went on to reach the FA Cup final, where they lost
2-0 to Bolton Wanderers.
'By the time we got to Wembley, I think it was incidental whether
we won the final ... the real point was that we (Manchester United)
had survived.'
Charlton, who was knighted in 1994, went on to become one of the
greatest footballers in the world. He won the World Cup with
England in 1966 when he was named European Footballer of the Year,
and also won the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968.
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Quite sad to read this..
